The Request
by BCandTheSundaceK
Summary: #56. Taking place after my first Animorph fanfic the Retribution. Marco gets a strange summons from Erek King. Which causes the Animorphs to embark on a journey that is out of this world. The Animorphs meet up with Visser 2 and form the most unlikly ally.
1. Chapter 1

I am a genius even if no one else can see it, sorry but I'm going to skip the whole 'my name is Marco' thing, I mean it makes me feel like I'm at one of those AA

meetings, you know Animorphs Anonymous. Besides right now I am basking in the glow of my own intellect. Not only is everyone excited about the new uniforms, my

idea, (though Rachel says she's not, but I know she secretly is, she's just is jealous, that she, the queen of fashion, didn't think of it), but I was also just coasting off

my great play with Lydia, and explaining to Ax why it was so well played. Ax naturally in his human morph, a mixture of all the Animorph DNA, except for Tobias, was

walking next to me, in what I took to be a confused look on his face.

"I don't understand," He said once more

"She just digs me," I explained.

I had been hanging out with Ax a lot more, ever since that incident in which a future Cassie destroyed the Escafil device, Jakes been

too busy doing 'guy stuff' to hang out with me. Which naturally translated into hanging out with Cassie, I guess the incident has upset her or something.

"But I she has no excavation instrument embedded in you." Ax pointed out.

Now don't get me wrong, its great hanging out with an alien and all, but I just never now when Ax is kidding. I mean either the guy is a comic genius for putting us in

this awkward position with his so called 'misunderstanding' of human euphemisms, or he is about in touch with our frame of reference as Spock is with his emotions.

"Dude, she likes me, that's all I'm saying."

"If she liked you why did she why did she insight, Cite, Sight, In-sigh-tuh, such a fun word, insight violence on you."

"Yeah, Ax insight is quite the rage in Europe these days," I said automatically. "I guess you just don't understand the adolescent human female. Its ok, most people, humans and aliens included don't. The reason she called me a pig, and slapped the backside of my head is her fear. That's right, her fear that someone may realize that she likes me, and due to her insecurities, she can't display such vulnerability."

Ax still had his face contorted in a weird expression after I explained to him in full detail why he and the rest of the Animorph society were wrong about Lydia's

feelings for me. Although he assured me he understood, but I wasn't convinced. I was going to continue our discussion on how a good wing man would act in such a

situation that we were going into, when I spotted Erek.

Erek King looks like a normal boy, the same age as me, but I assure you he is older than the pyramids of Egypt. He's not even human, and I am not entirely sure he'd

be a guy either, or whether or not the Chee had genders or not. But one thing was for sure when ever you saw Erek you could be sure there was trouble a foot.

"Remember in grade school, when you used to be fun?" I asked as he approached

"Remember when your jokes used to be good? Besides I was never fun." He quipped

"Hey, my jokes are good."

"Well not immature and childish I guess."

"So what brings you here, besides spoiling me and the Ax-man's fun?" I said, rubbing my hands together, putting on my best Jake impression.

A shimmer went up, and Erek was no longer in his human form, but five foot Pemalite made of what appeared to be steel and ivory, a Chee. An android of the

Pemalite, and all that was left of their extinct ancient race. Because Erek had dropped his hologram I could tell he had raised a larger one encompassing both Ax and

I.

"I have a message for all the Animorphs." He said.

"Great and just when I got my driver's license, I always had a feeling that I'd never use it."

"It is for all of you," he continued "you must all see it together."

"Yeah no problem, we'll just send around a flyer at school announcing the next Animorph meeting at the Barn so all controllers know where to apprehend 4 kids, a

hawk, an alien and an android," I said sardonically.

"Don't worry we've got it covered, in case you haven't heard, which I assume you haven't there is a pool party at my house this weekend. Marco, I am surprised with

circles of friends as prestige's as yours you haven't heard about it."

"Ha ha, I didn't know you guys had a pool."

"Just got it"

"You put in a pool for a cover, just for a meeting?"

"You'd be surprised what a platoon of androids can do in a day."

I was about to make a crack about Skynet, but thought the better of it, see the Chee are peaceful and non-violent, their programming would never allow them to

hurt a fly. None of them have ever committed anything as heinous as a murder that is until Erek used the Pemalite crystal to reprogram himself. He killed over a

dozen Hork-Bajir and probably thirty humans, in less time that it takes you to blink your eye. It was so awful that he changed his programming back and had us

dispose of the crystal. He said the memory will remain fresh in his mind for all eternity. So I figured it would be best not to rub salt in the wound by to bringing up

homicidal androids.

Erek filled us in about the details of the pool party, and then we parted ways. Luckily it was the beginning of the week so we'd have plenty of time to insert a party

into our schedules. Sadly due to the very strange nature of our meeting at the King's place we ended up having a meeting at the Barn anyways. The barn actually is

the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic Cassie's dad runs, she helps out too. It has come in great for giving us a place to meet, as well as acquire new morphs for various

missions. Plus it was always full of hay furniture.

"I just don't understand," Continued Jake, "why wouldn't he just come here and tell us what's going on, like he normally would." He continued pacing back and

forth, rubbing his temples vigorously, like he was trying to figure out a Rubik's cube. Tobias was over head, in the rafters in his hawk morph, or his 'normal' body I

guess.

Ever since he got his morphing powers back he always returns to his _nothlit_ form of a hawk. I don't think he feels bad about it either, before when he still was a

human, he could hardly stand to be one, he would always be enjoying his hawk morph. And it has come in handy for us, because he is trapped in his hawk morph, he

stays up in the rafters looking out for approaching people, as we have our exciting meetings. Ax was also present at this meeting, normally he isn't involved with

every little meeting we have, and it's just too hard for him. But because of the extreme nature of the situation he was also present. So we were all there at the barn

planning our next save the world adventure, and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, I couldn't stand it.

"You know," I began, "I have no idea what lolling in the hay is, but I think I do it every time we come here."

"That's about all you do." Rachel shot back.

Seeing Rachel take the bait, I figured I would continue our banter for a while.

"Look all I'm saying is, there's always a pink one, in every superhero team, I mean look at the Power Rangers." I said indicating Rachel's morphing uniform, "And

since you're the girliest I just think it makes since that you should wear it."

I saw her pupils dilate as the last words slipped off my tongue. It was the last thing I saw for awhile, since my head was being held inside a hay bale for the next

minute or so.

"What!" She cried in mock horror, at least I assume it was mock horror. She then proceeded to plant my head in the hay bale and ask "Who's the girliest now?"

"Your right Xena," a muffed cry sprang from the bale "your suit should match the color of your heart." She had kept her suit black, like her old morphing uniform.

Eventually we ended up finishing up the meeting without actually accomplishing anything except giving everyone a big case of the willies. I just was hoping Erek was

over reacting to something. Of course he wasn't … he never does.


	2. Message in a Bottle

"Marco." A voice yelled up the stairs, "Marco!"

I rolled over in my bed and checked the clock; it displayed 10:45 in the red digital clock. I didn't see the big deal it was Saturday after all, what was Dad's problem?

"MMMmph." I grumbled down the stairs, as I rolled over, what I really needed was sleep. It was true, we hadn't done any missions lately, at least any major ones, I hardly consider recon with Tobias a mission anyways, but I really needed to catch up on my sleep. This time for school related issues. I had a paper due in history, and a math test next Monday. _Argh,_ a Monday, what kind of sick twisted person puts a test on Monday, a day already shunned for its infamy of being the worst day ever. Of course the answer is simple, math teachers, and I suppose they hardly count as teachers anyways. Though hallway rumors indicate that Urdahl is getting soft in his old age, he used to do quizzes like these unannounced. Not that math was a weak point of mine or anything, but I had to hand it to the guy he always…

"Marco! Your friend … No is here."

That statement quickly killed my half dream induced ramble about my love/hate relationship with Urdahl. Since No, is actually a name Ax came up with while I foolishly left him alone with my Dad. I bolted down the stairs towards where my Dad, and Ax were, Ax with what appeared to be strands of our new rug in his teeth, and my Dad giving me that look of his which seems to say "Are you sure you're not doing drugs, cause I'm sure he is" look. I gave some half cocked story about how it probably just looks like a delicacy from his home country, I didn't think it was too bad either, if you replaced country with planet since it did kind of look like plush grass we saw on board a Dome Ship. As I did this I pushed Ax upstairs to prevent my father from prying anymore questions out of Ax, like which country he was from.

After we were in the safety of my room I asked in a calm and polite way, what services he wished to solicit that I could offer.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I said in a hushed yell.

"We were invited to a swim party, at the Kings, and I was informed I don't have proper attire."

I rolled my eyes; Tobias had obviously explained what a pool party was, and what swimsuits were for.

"Why didn't you just ask Rachel to help you?" I said, while finishing dressing.

"I did, she sent me here."

Curse that girl; she was winning our battle of wits, for once.

"Well I guess it's for the best, since if you went with Bird-boy or Xena you'd have probably ended up getting pummeled at the party. Luckily you have the styling of Marco at your service. When is the party anyways?" I had actually forgotten.

"In three of your hours."

"They're everyone's hours," I started as we headed out the door to get a swimsuit.

We would take the bus to the mall, do a little shopping, pick up a suit for Ax, and get back in plenty of time before, it would be easy, no problem.

"So tell me again why you were late?" Jake asked for the second time.

It was only 2 o'clock, I really didn't see the big deal, sure we arrived late, but you know fashionably. Actually it was 3:30, which actually was pretty good timing considering what happened at the mall. I had it all figured out too, we would arrive at the mall pick up a suit for Ax, whatever he wanted and I'd make him put it on, wear it under his clothes so we'd speed up the process of getting into the pool. I lied when I said any suit he wanted, after he came back with the Speedo that you see body builders wearing. After trying unsuccessfully to convince him that it was a bad choice, I caved and let him try it on. I mean who could resist when he said "But it says I'll be the talk of the pool, women will want me and men will want to be me." All this just goes to show that he should stop watching his soaps. When I came to check on him, to make sure he was all done so we could leave. He stepped out of the dressing room with the Speedo over his head like an undersized shirt with one too few holes in it. Oh and did I mention that is all he had on. So after we cause this scene in the mall, we had to lie low for a while. In which we then moved to another section of the mall, and I picked out a swimsuit for him to wear. Of course we had to acquire the suit in such away to not attract more attention to ourselves.

"So you thought an osprey and a harrier stealing a pair of swim shorts would attract less attention?" Tobias inquired.

"Like I said the last time, we're borrowing them for the party, besides no one say us fly away."

"I just wanted to go to the party, Par-Tee." Ax said helpfully.

I saw Cassie start to crack up, as she made some excuse to go somewhere else.

I was only in the pool for five minutes, when Erek approached me. I tried to explain this too him, but he wouldn't hear it, all he would say was I should have arrived earlier.

You had to admire the Chee for pulling off this stunt, since there are actually only a couple Chee that portray humans our ages, which meant most of the people here were actually humans. Erek cloaked us in his hologram, when he approached each of us, playing the part of a good host, and then another Chee would take our place.

"I bet you guys don't even like the water." I commented as I watched myself swimming in the pool.

Erek ignored my comment as we walked into the King house, passing Mr. King, as we approached the elevator to the Chee's underground sanctuary. Erek dropped is hologram as he approached the elevator, which would mean that Mr. King was hiding us with his hologram, while pretending to be a concerned parent, checking on the teens playing in his new pool.

"This will be so cool." Rachel said breaking the silence, "I know you guys have already seen this place, but Tobias and I haven't."

"Its, great," I sarcastically, "if I were a dog, this is what I'd imagine heaven to be."

We reached the bottom of the shaft and stepped out into the wondrous Chee sanctuary. With all its strange flora and fauna, as well as the familiar sights of squirrels dogs, and Chee running around. Erek motioned us to follow him into a room that I hadn't noticed the first time I had been down here.

The room he lead us into wasn't a very big room, it was basically a normal conference room it had a table for us all to sit around as we all listened to the lecture Erek was about to present us with. I had noticed that Tobias and Ax had already demorphed as we entered the conference room. A perch rose up from the table near Rachel, which Tobias used as a roost. Once we had all settled in, Erek began.

"A couple of days ago, we received a secure transmission, it is intended for you." As Erek finished, the room was enveloped in an image.

"This is so much cooler than the IMAX," I said

On the screen appeared a small bird like creature that we encountered before, a native to the Hork-Bajir home world, an Arn named Quafijinivon.

"Greetings, friends," He began, "I am sad to say, I have some bad news. By the time this reaches you, I will have been dead for one of your Earth weeks, my biological clock has expired. The original plan to restart the Hork-Bajir revolution on our planet isn't as successful as I thought. We have won some battles, but have suffered some terrible draw backs. I had several labs operating to out put the maximum amount of resistance fighters that I could."

"I can't believe this guy," Cassie snapped, "they're living beings, and he's treating them like robots." Cassie glanced over at Erek feeling embarrassed, "I'm sorry she said, you know what I mean, he's just pumping them off an assembly line, and sending them too their deaths, he doesn't care about them at all."

"No offence taken, Cassie, I know what you meant."

Quafijinivon, continued "The Children of the Arn, were not performing as well as I hoped. I began modifying their DNA, redesigning them to be warriors, not tree shepard's."

"Did he just say, he made the Hork-Bajir more war-like? Is that even possible?" Someone said, it could have been me.

"I adapted their features to serve as better tools of combat, not for harvesting bark. I didn't drastically alter their anatomy; I still wanted them to infiltrate the Yeerks bases. We were starting to win minor victories, ambushing weapon supplies convoys, starting to attack priority structures. We were making head way in our quest to free ourselves from slavery. This is when we suffered our first major set back. The Yeerks found one of my labs. As soon as we realize it, I detonated the lab. They were able to extract quite a bit of information from the lab, though I don't think they will be able to figure it out for quite sometime, since I interrupted their procedure. The information is useless unless they have all of the program, at best the only know the DNA sequence of the Hork-Bajir, which they already knew. The only problem that remains is we have two running labs left. They will find them soon, and when that happens the galaxy may be lost.

It was my fault really, in order to make the Hork-Bajir more effective, I spent most of my time isolating the defective gene known to us Arn as the Seer gene. Once I isolated it, I incorporated it into all the Hork-Bajir DNA, they would know be more coordinated in their attacks, and could survive with out my guidance. I knew I would be leaving them soon, and wanted them to be successful in their mission. I foolishly sent these groups loose with knowledge of their origins. This is how the first base was discovered. Luckily, I fixed this problem, no one form the other two labs knows their locations. However, I can't risk the Yeerks stumbling upon the other labs. I will detonate the second lab upon my death, leaving only one left. I can't reach it in time to destroy it. It is the lab that I had brought you to, my friends, which still remains active. I fear that this rebellion is also lost. I will soon mount my final attack on the Yeerks, and the lab will be destroyed. But with a lab still available the Yeerks will have the same mastery of genetics as the Arn do. You will not be alone friends. There are still pocket groups of the 'Seer Tribe' as the Yeerks have dubbed them, operating. Destroying this lab will give them a fighting chance at survival. I know what the Hork-Bajir mean to you, and I know you'll grant me this one last favor, for their sake. Thank you my friends. Quafijinivon out."

And with that, the transmission ended. Erek let all the information soak into our heads. I couldn't believe it, the Yeerks having the ability to create deadlier Hork-Bajir, and mass produce them. The Arn wasn't lying, if they possessed this power, then our little Earth based resistance would hardly be noticed, and we would be crushed out of existence, and the Andalite's would be toast. Tobias was the first to break the long silence.

"The Yeerks will be unstoppable after this, they would be able to create the creatures of the Deep, and control them."

Tobias spent a lot of time with the Free Hork-Bajir colony on Earth, and he has told us some pretty fantastic tales about them, such as the Creatures of the Deep. They were ferocious creatures that make the Hork-Bajir wet the bed, I didn't even think that was possible. Tobias had jump right to a point I had missed, it wouldn't just be Hork-Bajir they would be cranking out, it would be, anything their foul minds could imagine.

"They could finally stop enslaving other races." Cassie of course, if there was a beam of hope in this dire situation she would be the first one to find it.

"Remember the Iskroot?"

"Who could forget that planet full of salesman?" Rachel said

"Maybe this is their chance to give themselves their symbiotic life partner."

"Your right, I mean who would give up galactic conquest, when they could create their symbiotic life partner?" I replied

As much as I hated to admit it Cassie, was right, there was a group of Yeerks, who wanted a better way, part of the resistance group that we had recently found out about. Yeerks like Aftran 942, who had enslaved Cassie, and had become a _nothlit_. She would have dreamed about such a way to finally free themselves from the role of ruthless dictators.

"You know if we could give the Yeerk Peace Movement members that technology we would, but you know that the Visser's will use it for evil." Jake said

Cassie nodded in agreement, but I could still tell she was mad that we finally had a peaceful resolution to this conflict, and yet it would be our undoing, as well as the rest of the galaxy's.

Ax who had remained quite for the whole time finally spoke up I know that you all want to help out the Hork-Bajir, but we have no way to get to their planet. We would have to steal a ship, and the Yeerks know all the tricks we have tried before. I don't think we can successfully capture a ship.

Ax had said what everyone was thinking, we almost captured a ship once, and no one remembers it better than Ax and I. It was Ax's one chance to go home, and it was also the moment I found out my mother was alive. Jake claims we once successfully stole a new Bug-fighter proto type, but personally I think the stress of leading is finally getting to him.

"Actually," Erek interrupted, "you won't need to."

At that moment twelve, I mean fourteen sets of eyes focused on the android.

"The reason we had the pool party was so you could leave in this space ship." As he spoke, the wall behind him disappeared, revealing what I almost took to be a Bug Fighter. It was a little bigger than the standard Bug Fighter, It looked like a transport ship, but it was defiantly of Yeerk design. We were told it was a _Jalux_ ship, which apparently meant the grouping of young Yeerks that moved together once they were spawned. Obviously a personal transport ship, it probably travels as apart of a convoy, due to its apparent lack of weapons. It looked like a silverfish, a type of pill bug.

"How did you get this … actually I don't think I want to know." Jake said

"Well, we had better figure out what to do, we should get some supplies before we head out, I remember from the last time it was a rather long and boring trip." He continued

"You have to leave today," Erek said, "the Chee are uncomfortable with storing this space ship, and you already have a good cover for leaving."

"Erek, would you mind covering for us while were gone?" Cassie, again, always trying to strengthen our friendships with politeness.

"I am just disappointed, I wish you would have told me earlier, and then I wouldn't have spent all that time studying."


	3. Chapter 3

Before shipping us off to the house of horrors, aboard the Jaluxtransport, Erek suggested an interesting idea. The Chee had played us before, but not usually in access of a week. The Androids claim that humans are easily fooled, seeing what they want to see. However, they only can go on fooling themselves for so long before they start asking questions. At first I thought he was insinuating something about Tom, Jake's brother. But as it turns out, this would be the second time we discussed the greedy salesmen known as the Iskroot. Erek explained how he reverse engineered the memory transfer software, while they were downloading his memories or something like that. He wanted to take a snapshot of our memory so they could better play us Animorphs. Most of our human behavior was easily mimicked, what he basically said he would obtain is a glance of the memories we held the strongest grasp on. Jake jumped right the just of what Erek was getting at.

"So basically, you'd just get a bunch of names and dates, along with what we were feeling at the time?"

Erek explained that, what Jake had suggested was essentially what we'd be able to grasp of his program. The four of us, 'volunteered' our minds to be scanned.

"I don't know about you guys but, I for one am always willing to help illuminate the deeper intricacies of Marco." I said.

Rachel looked like she was about to say a snide comment then thought the better of it. We then all loaded into _Animorph_ _One_, as we dubbed it.

((I still don't get why you keep calling it _Animorph One_,)) Tobias said, ((Just because you call it that, doesn't make it so. Besides if you were going to name it, I think it should be a cool name like _Intrepid, Magnanimous,_ or _Enterprise_))

"Yeah whatever you say, Captain Kirk."

Tobias and I continued to discuss the importance of naming the ship, as we launched off into space. Going into space is probably one of the coolest things ever. The feel of acceleration as you pull away from mommy Earth, and head out towards the void. However being in space is probably the most boring thing known to man. Especially in advanced alien space craft. You just walk around looking at endless black, peppered with white dots. I take that back, space actually is exciting to what comes next. After we pass far enough away from the moon's influence of gravity, we jump to Z-space. Z-Space actually makes normal space look exciting, all you see in Z-space is white. Which is why Tobias and I were discussing names for _Animorph One._ Usually Tobias is more reserved, so once I got him going on the name of the ship, I couldn't stop myself. Talking to Bird-boy beat out listening to Ax ramble on about what Z-space did, and what it was made of. On the plus side, Erek had told us they had loaded quite a bit of data into the memory banks of the ship, so if there was anything we wanted to read, watch, or play chances were it was aboard. But there is just something about being crammed aboard a small space ship, surrounded by blinding white, with the same five people, for a week that really gets on a person's nerves, and for the life of me, I just can't put my finger on it.

So naturally we spend a lot of time bickering about pointless stuff. Cassie wants nothing more than to interfere with my fun, obviously.

"Do you ever think about what they are doing, while we're gone?"

"You know, I never really thought about it," I said

* * *

What felt like months of traveling in Z-space finally came to a close. I was happy to finally get out of the ship and on to land. Even if it was a Yeerk occupied planet, in which they were waging open warfare against a small army of Hork-Bajir. Just goes to show you how much fun space travel can be.

((What do we do now?)) Tobias asked.

Everyone was probably thinking the same thing. How were we supposed to land our transport ship and get to the hidden laboratory without being spotted? Jake being the ever cunning leader, came up with the idea of having us land the ship in the ship yard and just walk out through the front door.

"I like it." Rachel, of course.

"Personally I wouldn't mind turning the ship around and heading home, I mean I still haven't watched _Two Towers_ for the nth time this trip."

I don't think any of them heard me since I didn't hear a chorus of laughter. I was about to repeat my retort when Tobias pointed out a problem with the plan.

((Don't we need a reason to be here?)) He asked. ((It's not like we're carrying anything, despite this being a transport, or that our logs show we came from Earth, which makes no sense at all.))

It's at times like this that I am reminded that somebody isn't a morning person, though who can tell when you have perpetual white light blaring through all the view ports. Nonetheless his point was a valid one. We couldn't just land at Yeerk Central, and we couldn't pretend we were damaged. They would know the damage wasn't real, and if it was real, I don't know how we would get back home.

((The Hork-Bajir planet is one of the strong holds of the Yeerk Empire, traffic through these parts should be quite dense. An extra ship popping in unexpected shouldn't be too much to deal with.)) Ax explained. ((It won't give us anonymity eternally though. And any abrupt changes in our flight path after exiting Z-Space would flag us as a ship of interest.))

"Well this just keeps getting better and better." Jake mumbled.

"I take it that no one else read the manual during the trip?" Cassie mused. "The ship was given some slight modifications by the Chee. Erek says that the ship has a cloaking ability that should shield us from Yeerk sensors."

"Should, my favorite word, well that and suicide mission."

((Yes,)) Ax continued ((I think I did see that in the manual, but like all cloaking equipment it is non-functioning in Z-Space. When we immerge we will be visible, we will have to dip behind a cruiser or another large vessel before we engage our cloak. Preferably in an area were traffic is high in volume, that way they won't notice a ship that has disappeared. Again this won't conceal us completely, but it will buy us time to land. They will know someone has arrived, but they won't know who or where.))

We all agreed that Ax had a decent plan, and if everything went according to plan, this should be a nice and easy trip. We emerged from Z-space though we were still far away from the Hork-Bajir home planet there still was a lot of space traffic in the area. I suppose this made sense; the ships couldn't hop into Z-space too close to the planet, so where we were was like the Yeerk equivalent of an on-ramp to the freeway.

((Whoa,) Tobias exclaimed. ((I think I just found our vessel.))

"That can't be right…" Jake started. "That's not possible."


	4. Chapter 4

"It's just a Blade ship, what's the big deal?" Rachel stated. "I mean all of the Vissers have one … Ax?"

((Not all the Vissers are allotted a private battleship, only the higher ranking ones. It is believed no Visser under the rank of…))

((It is his ship.)) Tobias said cutting off Ax. ((Can't you guys feel it, his evil presence?))

I rolled my eyes and was about to make a crack about someone watching Star Wars too much on the trip, when I realized that he might be right. The Hork-Bajir planet was secured there was no reason to have a high ranking Visser here; it was a glorified babysitting job. No Visser I have ever met would agree to this. But it didn't mean the Blade ship belonged to our friend Visser Three.

"Look maybe it is some random Visser trying to up his prestige by quashing the little Hork-Bajir rebellion planet side." I started. "Or maybe Yeerks have a Visser patrolling the systems they control. It is not our guy." I made sure to look at Tobias as I finished my sentence.

We hid behind the Blade ship long enough to engage our cloaking device and descend to the planet side. I was so busy convincing myself that Tobias was wrong, that I didn't notice there were 2 Blade ships in Hork-Bajir space. One of which was much closer to the planet, indicating that it had been here for a while, whereas the one we encountered was at the fringe of space, as if it had just arrived.

We couldn't put the ship down on top of the lab, that would have been too easy, and clearly not worthy of an Animorph adventure. The lab was buried deep with in a cliff face; the only way to reach the cliff face was on foot. The other down side was open area. This planet covered in forests with trees thousands of feet high, yeah you heard me right thousands. The Sequoias of Earth are like baby trees here. And were you don't have dense forest you have unforgiving cliffs, and canyons, like the planet is coming apart at the seems. And it isn't as if we could land at the bottom of the canyons. Not unless we wanted to be vaporized by the planets core. And the third problem, did I mention the third problem? Well this by far is the best part, the only areas that are prime for landing; well those parts are prime Yeerk real-estate. We're talking Yeerk pools, Star ports, buildings amusement parks; ok I made the last one up. But there was no place you could safely land a ship, someone was bound to run into it, literally.

We ended landing the ship on an ample tree branch, which was hopefully far enough away from the cleared Yeerk base to limit its exposure to Hork-Bajir Controllers.

"Everyone remember where we parked." Jake lectured as we climbed out of the ship.

"We should scale down the tree in Hork-Bajir morphs," Cassie explained. "Using our raptor morphs would be faster, but we can't chance someone spotting an Earth bird here."

I didn't like it, but I didn't argue. I hate heights, well not so much heights as the fear of falling to my death. And instead of being say, a bird who can soar down safely, I was going to climb down. And if I made one mistake on the climb down it would be all over.

"Yeah sure, no problem." I gulped. "And thus ended Marco, the brave, the valiant, the irresistible… not felled by a mighty warrior on the battlefield, but by a tree."

"Quit your whining." snapped Rachel.

I ignored her words and focused on the Hork-Bajir DNA inside of me. I felt my neck lengthen as I gained the snake-like neck of the Hork-Bajir. I felt the taut coils of muscles appear in my legs and arms. I grew taller and taller, bigger than Shaq. I felt my teeth melt together and harden into a falcon-like beak. My eyes grew slightly dimmer, but my hearing sharpened. Sproot! Sproot, sprout! Blades started exploding from my head like overgrown pimples. I turned to see my tail start to grow out behind me, a thick muscular tail meant for balance. It was as if someone had pinched my tail bone and was stretching it out as if it were made of silly putty. Sproot, Sproot! The last of the blades appeared on my wrists, elbows, knees and tail. My feet unfurled into huge T-rex like feet.

I felt the Hork-Bajir instincts start to take over, my fears of falling melted away as I finished my changes. I was at home in the trees; I didn't fear falling, the thought never crossed my mind.

"Yee-haw!" I shouted as I plunged from our branch down a couple stories grasping my hand out clasping on to a smaller branch, only to swing around and launch myself further down the tree.

"Apparently now heights don't bother him." Tobias commented.

It didn't take too long until we had made it to the base of the tree. We headed out towards the gaping wound in the planet that was the canyon. It was a hit and run mission, we weren't suppose to be here very long, get in, blow up the lab and leave. But as I said before, nothing ever seems to go according to plan.

I had just finished remorphing, when a group of Hork-Bajir made its way to our position. The group had probably 2 dozen or more Hork-Bajir. I noticed that the one in the lead had a Dracon beam holstered at his side, kind of like a bizarre sheriff from a western movie; the others carried strange looking equipment or brandishing weapons.

((Play it cool,)) Jake warned us in thought-speak. This was a cool thing about morphing; even if you morphed an animal that could talk through other means, say like a human, as long as you were in a morph you could still use thought speak. ((They probably just think we are a patrol group or something. Act confident, look directly at the approaching Hork-Bajir, if it looks like we're suppose to be here, they might let us pass.))

Yeah, look confident. No big deal, it's just 20 odd Hork-Bajir with Dracon beams surrounding us, why wouldn't I be confident. What did Jake think we'd be scared? I mean where did he get these crazy ideas?

((Shut up Marco!)) Tobias hissed.

Apparently I was not just thinking that in my head. By this time the pod, the group? The gaggle? Yeah gaggle, by this time gaggle of Hork-Bajir had closed in and was an arms length away. I heard the lead Hork-Bajir roar something in a deep and guttural language.

((Galard)) Ax explained. ((He is wondering where are weapons are.))

((Tell him we are on recon mission, if we were to be spotted by the rogue Hork-Bajir, we wanted them to think we were one of them,)) lied Jake.

Ax translated what Jake had said to the rest of the group, this went on for a while, Ax would explain what was being said via thought speak, and then would relay what Jake had said in Galard.

((He wants us to head back to the base, our reconnaissance mission can wait until a later date.))

((We can take them!)) I rolled my eyes, Rachel, of course. Apparently rolling your eyes is a universal for signaling that you think an idea is stupid. Because after I did my eye roll, the big lead Hork-Bajir closed the distance between us and yelled something at me, then he waved us off.

((What's his problem?)) I asked.

((He wanted you to know that it is perilous to your health to incur the wrath of a Visser by questioning his orders.))

((He didn't seem like a Visser.)) Cassie said.

((Oh, I thought you noticed,)) Ax began. ((He was a member of a Visser's Elite guard, which is why he doesn't need to return to base, he has other orders to follow. Didn't you see the black arm band?))

I thought about what Ax said, I did remember something about arm bands, we saw them when we first learned my mother was still alive, when we first meet Visser One.

((Um, Ax?)) Tobias ventured, ((Lets pretend we don't know what the black arm band signals.))

((Well as you know Gold is for Visser One, and Red is for Visser Three. The color ranking for Visser's goes as follows: Gold, blue, red, purple, black …))

((You're saying Visser Five is here?)) Cassie asked.

((It would seem so,)) Ax confirmed.


	5. Chapter 5

We headed back towards the compound, our easy hit and run mission had just been audibled into an infiltration and don't die mission. The only upside to this mission is we didn't need to worry about being recognized or seen as out of place, pretty much everyone here was a Hork-Bajir. Sure they had a couple Taxxons running around and even a few humans and other assortment of aliens, but it was mostly Hork-Bajir. The only down side would be if Ax got separated from the group, see he was the only one who spoke Galard, and we were constantly being ordered around.

Luckily the orders weren't anything too big, and all the orders were confined to a compound outside a large Yeerk pool. It seems that the Visser was landing soon, and the Hork-Bajir wanted the Yeerk Pool looking nice. That and there was some podium being set up, I guess he was going to address the soldiers or give us some sort of briefing, I didn't know. All I knew was that if we stuck close together towards the back of the compound and pretended like we were busy setting equipment people left us alone.

((We have approximately 33% of our time left in this morph,)) Ax informed us.

((You know it would be a lot easier if you just gave it to us in minutes,)) I began. ((All you need to say is … what is it … 40 minutes and then we are trapped as overgrown salad-shooters.))

Ax ignored my statement, or at least he didn't respond to it, nobody did. They were all worried; we were trapped in this large area surrounded by an uncountable amount of controllers, with absolutely no way out.

((Ax,)) Rachel began. ((What are those Hork-Bajir unloading from that space craft?))

((I believe they are cuboid storage containers,)) He answered.

((No shit, what are inside those boxes?))

((Ah, I agree with your astute observation Rachel. It is unlikely they are transporting fecal waste in those boxes, as they are bringing them into the Yeerk Pool, not out of it.))

I shook my head, I couldn't tell if he was attempting a joke or not.

((It looks like they are unloading weapons.)) Ax finished.

I could already see what Rachel was thinking. She thought if we could get a hold of one of those crates, or what was inside them; we might be able to escape. Or at least improve our chances of doing so. Jake also seemed to deduce her reasoning behind this.

((Six Dracon beams against a whole army? Rachel as soon as we start acting suspiciously people are going to start noticing. I don't think they are going to take any chances especially with a Visser coming down.))

I snapped my fingers, of course, the Visser. I guess I might have sold her a little bit short. But before I could start in with my plan Jake beat me to the punch line.

((Ax, how do you say 'We're here to help unload the weapons' in Galard?))

As we headed over to the drop ship, which looked sort of like a giant wingless Dragonfly who was missing his tail, Jake filled us in on 'his' great plan. Since there was a Visser landing in the area, and no one would dare question a Visser's orders, we would be granted some freedom if we claimed all of our orders came from the Visser. And with any luck, nobody should be paying attention to any lowly grunt stuck with moving duty.

"Hanna gorban chu chuno greevs," Ax stated indicating the rest of us.

The Hork-Bajir seemed to give us that 'it's about time' look. Tossing each of us a crate, we started to head towards the munitions shed. Once inside the shed Ax began rifling through the boxes. He was looking for explosives. The plan was to wait until the Visser arrived, and detonate a couple of explosives and hopefully in the ensuing chaos we could make our discreet exit.

((What a waste of good weapons,)) sighed Rachel. ((If we could get just a crate or two, just think of what the 'rogue' Hork-Bajir could do.))

((You know we would take some weapons if we could Rachel, but there is just no way to get them out of here unnoticed,)) Jake explained.

Ax found some palm sized explosives; activating one he placed it back into the crate he removed it from.

((It would be best if we placed a few explosives around the compound, to create a larger distraction, which would lead their attention farther away from us.))

We agreed, but it wasn't going to be easy, you could just go sticking explosives to sides of buildings or people with out them noticing what you were doing. Ax's plan was sound though, if were to create the illusion that a rogue group of Hork-Bajir was attacking the compound we would need to have more than one explosion.

((We need to wait until the Visser has landed,)) I said. ((That way when the explosions go off, people will be too distracted trying to protect the Visser, and figuring out where the attack is coming from. We'll rush out into the forest chasing down the attackers and no one will think otherwise.))

We finished planting the bombs, and continued to unpack more weapons crates, and from the tension you could tell that the Visser would be arriving soon. A lone Bug Fighter descended down towards the clearing made towards the center of the compound. It was the area we weren't able to get anywhere near, or if we had we would have been under sever scrutiny, no one was allowed in the clearing. That is how we could tell it was the location of the Visser's touch down point.

A door way appeared at the side of the Bug Fighter. An incision appeared at the side of the Fighter, growing wider and taller the metal appeared to be a liquid, much like the T-1000 of Terminator 2, as it slid away from the incision that first appeared. It reminded me of water going over an oiled surface. Through the newly formed doorway stepped out an enormous Hork-Bajir female, as here forehead blades indicated who was easily eight feet tall. If you counted her forehead blades she was in the eight and a half to nine foot range. This had to be Visser Five, I was curious to see what type of controller Visser Five would employ; it wasn't at all surprising that Visser Five chose this host. The host's body was physically intimidating, an aspect all Visser's I had met preferred. Save for the vile Yeerk who enslaves my mother.

Two smaller, yet equally intimidating Hork-Bajir flanked the Visser as she exited the Bug Fighter, their black arm bands indicating that they were part of her private guard. She began addressing the gathered Yeerk populace, her voice booming, barking out orders in Galard. We slowly started to move through the crowd; we decided that it would be best if we split up into two groups of three, to limit drawing any attention to ourselves. Rachel, Jake and Cassie were in one group, while I lead Ax and Tobias. We were waiting for Jakes signal to blow the explosives when Ax spoke up.

((I believe that Tobias was correct with his earlier statement.))

((Yeah, I'm also always impressed when Tobias is correct,)) I stated in a confused manner. Tobias shot me a glare with a furrowed look upon his goblin-like Hork-Bajir face.

((What are you talking about Ax-man?)) Tobias asked. But before Ax could respond, the open area where the Bug Fighter landed began to shimmer. A jet black Blade Ship materialized out of the air. A door began to stretch open from a minute fissure on the Blade Ships hull. The air became chill, everyone in attendance shuddered, a powerful and yet graceful Andalite, but not an Andalite; an Andalite-Controller descended down the ramp. Visser Three was here.

((You got to hand it to the guy; he has balls, one-upping another Visser at her party. That guy knows how to make an entrance.))

((Yes, I do believe he has 'balls' he is male after all.)) I rolled my eyes at what I perceived as Ax's attempt at another lame joke.

The crowd was mesmerized by his appearance, he had just outdone Visser Five at her own game, even his ride was cooler, and the only thing missing was dry ice smoke pouring out of the Blade Ships entry way as he stepped out onto the Hork-Bajir planet. Ax had explained it to me once, the way Visser Three could make a whole room chilled. Because of their pseudo-psychic thought-speak nature, how everyone is able to understand what an Andalite is saying, Andalites can 'broadcast' strong emotions. It is a more primitive function of their telepathic abilities, and I had only ever felt it around two Andalites: Elfangor, whose presence was that of peace and security, and that of Visser Three, whose malice and hatred plumed out of his mind, like the rot of decaying road kill on a hot day.

((Fellow Yeerks and Visser Five it is a pleasure to be welcomed to this planet once again.)) His voice boomed in thought-speak, so Ax no longer need to translate for us.

((After hearing how I dealt with the Earth colony of escaped Hork-Bajir the Council of Thirteen has sent me here to aid Visser Five in his effort to destroy this pocket rebellion of Rogue Hork-Bajir. We shall crush these children of the Arn. With Visser Five leading the ground troops and me coordinating the operation we shall remind all Hork-Bajir that there is no hope here, only infestation!))

I thought back to when we tricked Visser One and Three into thinking that they had found and eradicated the Free Colony of Hork-Bajir on Earth, with the help of Erek King. I almost laughed out loud at the thought; the Council of Thirteen had just put a Visser in charge of an operation that he couldn't even complete with his own men.

((Uh, guys, don't you think we should have detonated the bombs, I think we just missed out perfect opportunity?)) Tobias pointed out.

((Shit, they caught us with our pants down,)) Rachel, of course.

((Something is not right,)) Cassie began. ((I don't think Visser Three wants to be here.))

((Well duh, he could be kicking back on Earth, but now he is running clean up, like he is some sort of 'space janitor' or something.))

((Space Janitor?))

((Yeah, you know cleaning up other people's messes, but _In Space!_))

((Would you two can it,)) Jake interrupted. ((What do you mean Cassie, do you think he is being tested, to prove he can hack it, like that ordeal Visser One just went through?))

((No, that isn't what I meant, but that could be the case. Didn't you guys hear it in his 'voice' when he said he was happy to be back and leading this group, coordinating with Visser Five?))

((Yeah, he's a prick, no surprise there,)) Tobias said.

((It isn't just that,)) Cassie explained. ((There is more to it, like he wants to be here, yet he doesn't. I don't know if it is Visser Five or what.))

((Don't any Vissers get along?))

((A Visser's power is in a constant state of flux,)) Ax began. ((Any deed accomplished by a Visser has immediate repercussions, be it good or ill. Both Vissers understand that this assignment may affect resources allocated to either Visser by the Council or even their ranks themselves depending on how this exercise is concluded.))

((So you're saying, it's not just about getting the job done, it is about being better than the other guy?))

((Not being better,)) I clarified. ((It's about looking better.))

((Or making them look worse,)) Jake said finishing my thought. ((We need to get moving, we've wasted too much time already. But Cassie is right this needs to be checked out. As if having one Visser isn't bad enough and now they have 2. Maybe we can turn this in our favor; you know the whole 2 heads not really being better than one thing.))

Jake sighed. ((Marco, I want your team to get into the Visser Three's quarters, and spy out what is happening, meet us back at the Jalux transport after dark.))

((What no straws?))

((Ax has a natural sense of direction, he can find the way back to the ship in the dark if need be, I was never a good boy scout, but I can find it if we have light. Alright, blow the charges.))

((About time! Let's do it.))

Before the detonator was pressed, I could see Jake's team start to make for their exit. I was able to see Jake give me a wink followed by his best Picard impersonation.

((Number One, you have the bridge.))

And then Ax pressed the button, and all chaos broke loose.


End file.
